Park Hill South’s Connor Jackson earned three wins at the Class 4 District 4 Tournament but misses out of a state berth.
INDEPENDENCE – When the Class 4 District 4 Boys’ Wrestling Tournament came to a close, Magnus Hoenshell and Landen McDowell stood alone at the top for Park Hill South.
With the state qualification being a top-4 finish at districts, those two are the only Park Hill South wrestlers who kept their season alive at Fort Osage High School on Feb. 17. Hoenshell took fourth place in the 132-weight class and McDowell was the 138-pound district champion.
Hoenshell has won 32 of his 46 matches of the year and started off 2-0 in districts with a pair of tech falls. Roman Stewart from Liberty had a 14-3 major decision over Hoenshell.
The Panther had a 7-2 decision victory over Travis Birkenmaier from Blue Springs. Hoenshell locked in a state berth with an appearance in the third-place match where he lost on a 3-0 decision to Logan Mainard from Blue Springs South.
McDowell’s road to being a district champion started with a pair of pins in 20 seconds and 23 seconds. The 138-pounder followed that up with a tech fall over Owen Barnhill (Lee`s Summit North) to advance to the championship.
In his final match of the weekend, McDowell met up with Rylan Mansfield (Fort Osage) and came away with a 3-1 decision win. He will head to state with an impressive 33-5 record.
Park Hill South senior 285-pounder Kiros Martin entered the tournament with 15 wins and only two losses but ended up with just as many losses in the postseason as the regular season to come shy of a state appearance. He opened up with a win by fall and lost on a 5-3 decision to Blue Springs’ Conor Tindle.
Martin won his next two matches by fall – taking down St. Joseph’s Central’s Jonas Perez and North Kansas City’s Quinton Bradley – to reach the consolation semifinals. In what ended up being the final match of his high school career, Martin lost on a 9-6 decision to Liberty’s Trenton Bindel.
Martin’s 10 points were tied with Mason Quarles (157) for the most by a Park Hill South wrestler who missed out on a trip to state. Quarles went 4-2 on the weekend with losses to Paxton Onka (Fort Osage) and Robert Purcell (Rockhurst) to end the season with 21 wins and 18 losses.
Connor Jackson pulled out three wins and nine points from the 144-weight class, but his season ended with a 13-1 major decision loss to Sjoeren Aumua from Grain Valley. Noah Kleinwolterink (120) only had seven wins ahead of districts, yet he took down two opponents in the postseason tournament to earn eight points.
Ethan Saft had a solid year in the 190-weight class, stringing together 25 wins and 17 losses, and his season came to an end at districts. He went 3-2 at Fort Osage and walked away with 6.5 points.